


Lucidity

by NekoAisu



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Fluff, Forehead Kisses, M/M, Noctis Lucis Caelum Lives, Older Ignis Scientia, Post-Game(s), Younger Noctis Lucis Caelum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-09-16 12:13:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16953804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NekoAisu/pseuds/NekoAisu
Summary: Ignis isn’t sure what the future holds for him after he burned the Scourge from Eos and picked a fight with the Astrals themselves, but Noctis is staring in wonder at the stars the same way he had when they were just two kids all those years ago and it sets his mind reeling through possibility after possibility.He knows he’d never let Noctis die for him─for the world─but sometimes he wishes there had been another way to fix their fates.





	Lucidity

**Author's Note:**

> For the delightful RaweniArt on Twitter! Happy holidays! <3
> 
> I went with two of the prompts??? sorta???? 
> 
> ((I hope you like it!!))

 

Noctis is staring in wonder at the stars the same way he had when Ignis had first shown him all the constellations he knew, all those years ago─when he’d sneak out of his quarters to stargaze with him until they’d both fall asleep curled together on the balcony─and he feels guilt for it. They’d never seen such a spread from inside the Wall, he knows, but Ignis doesn’t seem happy with it. He’s blinking rapidly like he’s about to cry and staring resolutely out at Bahamut’s Belt like he can will the stars to fall from the heavens. 

 

He hasn’t looked happy in a long while. 

 

(It’s a shame, Noctis thinks, because he’s most handsome when he smiles. The jade of his eyes coupled with the uneven dimples is a one-hit knockout with or without the scars surrounding his eyes and carving out miniature valleys on his face.)

 

He starts, “Hey, Specs?” 

 

The words are said quietly enough that Ignis can ignore them easily and pretend they’ve never been heard same as he could respond. Noctis waits. A breeze sweeps by and kisses at his cheeks. 

 

“Yes, Noct?”

 

“Why aren’t you happy,” he asks, “when you said you had nothing to want for?”

 

Ignis sighs and it sounds like even the breath is tiring to him. He smiles and it’s such a sad thing Noctis can’t help but reach up and press his hand gently to a cheek. “I am happy,” he replies. “I just wish you-no. I don’t. My apologies, Noct.”

 

“You wish I  _ what,  _ Ignis?” He moves his hand to pet at his advisor’s hair, not at all missing how Ignis leans into the movement. “You can want more, y’know? It isn’t bad to be selfish once in a while.”

 

Ignis laughs, eyes crinkling at the corners where there isn’t muscle damage from the Ring of the Lucii stealing from him, and leans in to press a kiss to the crown of his head. “I feel like I’ve more than taken up my fair share of being selfish. Both for this lifetime and many after,” he confesses in a deceptively light tone, “but thank you, Noctis. I feel that I needed to hear that.”

 

His king grins and Ignis can nearly  _ feel  _ it. The feeling is so familiar it makes his heart ache fiercely within his chest. There’s a softness to his face that doesn't match the current year and his hands are roughened with work in familiar places. He’s nearly a relic of a bygone age. 

 

Noctis had slept for ten long years while Ignis had prepared and fought Astral and mortal alike to find a workaround. They needed a sacrifice and he’d been more than willing to throw himself on that blade. The Ring had burned, but he’d tamed it. The Astrals had scorned, but he’d knocked them each from their realm and laid them low. When Noctis came back, he wasn’t the tired thirty-year-old Ignis had seen in visions. He’d been sleepy, yes, but so young and terrifyingly ready to take on the crown in a way that fate had decided he would otherwise never achieve. 

 

He’s careless in how he cosies up to Ignis’s chest out in the middle of the Leiden wilderness, the light of the haven dull wish disuse. 

 

Ignis isn’t sure how else this could have turned out, but he wishes he could stop thinking about it. 

 

(He still has flashes of visions, but they’ve shifted from Noctis dying on his throne to snatches of a life together. It’s still unwelcome.)

 

Noctis pulls his blanket up higher and jokes, “Happy to help.” 

 

Ignis wonders if maybe, somewhere, they’d have been able to get married. Noctis had said, once, that he’d love to be proposed to on a gondola while they were in Altissia. Ignis could see it, informal as it would be: him in his freshly pressed crownsguard uniform and Noctis in his best attempt at formality in his raiment. He knows how it feels to hold those hands, has for years, and thinks about how impossibly perfect it would be to sit together, fingers laced comfortably and left ring fingers bearing obvious symbols of their love.

 

He knows it’s impossible, now, with the mess Altissia has become. They’re still recovering and will be for years. Lucis is much the same. 

 

So he just leans down and whispers reverently, “I love you, Noct.”

 

“Love you too, Specs,” Noctis replies with a kiss. He points to a new constellation and comments, “I’m decently sure Luna is laughing at me from up there.”

 

“Why is that?” Ignis raises a brow and shifts, the metal of his Crownsguard coat digging into his side where it had crumpled up beneath him and between the rock of the haven. They need to purchase some pillows if they’re to make a proper hobby of skipping town. 

 

Noctis huffs in a way that suggests he’s amused rather than annoyed and mumbled, “She’d been telling me to confess since, like,  _ middle school.” _

 

“You mean to tell me that the Lady Lunafreya, Oracle and head of House Fleuret, has been giving you  _ love advice  _ in that notebook of yours since before you were even allowed to legally court someone?”

 

He protests, “It’s not like I did anything!”

 

Ignis laughs again and it’s full of joy. “Well, if you’d taken her advice, we’d have saved ourselves quite a few years’ worth of pining.”

 

“Oh, shut  _ up!  _ Who is it that had to ask Gladio to ask Prompto to ask  _ me  _ about what sort of date I’d like? You!” Noctis pokes at his cheek and snuggles closer like the contact is somehow indicative of his win.

 

“I’m glad to hear that my oldest friend─”

 

“I thought that was me?”

 

“─sold me out to you and no, Noctis, Gladiolus is my oldest friend,” Ignis finishes. He places yet another kiss on Noctis’s face, this time punctuating words with the gesture in place of a regular pause. “You’re my family-” one on his forehead “-my love-” one on his nose “-and my king.” 

 

The last one pressed to his mouth is sweetest. 

 

Noctis hums delightedly and remarks, “While we’re on the subject, Gladio also told me that─”

 

“If you finish that sentence, Noct, I will divorce you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hmu on:  
> Twitter - FlamingAceKiri  
> Discord - NekoAisu#7099


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